Listless Delhi knocked out in group league after 4th loss

Ahmedabad: An out of sorts Delhi, plagued by some questionable team selections, were knocked out of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, losing by 51 runs to Uttarakhand in their final group league stage game here on Tuesday.

With four defeats from seven games, Delhi with 12 points, finished fifth in Group C. Haryana, with 28 points and an all-win record, finished with highest points among all participating states.

The six teams to directly qualify for the quarterfinals are Haryana (28 points), Rajasthan (24), Karnataka (24), Vidarbha (20), Mumbai (20) and Tamil Nadu (20). The four teams to qualify for the pre-quarterfinals are Bengal (20), Gujarat (20), Kerala (20) and Maharashtra (20). Despite bowling out Uttarakhand for 221 in 45.5 overs with pacer Navdeep Saini (3/23) and left-arm spinner Harsh Tyagi (3/30) doing bulk of the damage, it was yet another shoddy batting show by young Delhi batters as they were bowled out for 170 in 46.2 overs. A state that has given batting stalwarts like Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant over the past two decades, it is embarrassing to find someone of Kshitiz Sharma’s (4 off 18 balls) calibre being asked to open the batting.

The selection committee as well as the team management will have some answering to do as to how Kshitiz, who has an average of less than 30 (29.86) in 22 List A games.